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Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Significant Women of the Sound --- Kelsey Par

This is the part of the world where I live

Last spring, a new student arrived in my Film Studies 105 class at Highline College whose writing stood out due to its sophisticated analysis of film theory and related life experience. Before I could connect the woman with the work, I knew the writer was exceptional. Slowly, I've enjoyed coming to know the woman behind the words: Kelsey Par.

Now jump forward six months and Kelsey has transformed from a quiet front row student to a news editor of the college paper, writing consultant at the writing center, and first prize winner in the Highline Film Festival. For now, I think she's found her stride in both creative and practical endeavors. Today Kelsey launches Significant Women of the Sound. The Puget Sound is where we are lucky enough to live (see image above). I volunteered to be Kelsey's first subject but I look forward to all the women of the Sound to come. Here's to Kelsey ---- a most significant Woman of the Sound!"As an undergraduate, I didn't really see the point of investing in my
education. How was Botany going to help me become a writer? It's ironic
that in order to graduate from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst
on-time, I needed to do the Honors Program. Honors meant I could skip
taking Mathematics and a few other college requirements. I kept my
grades up simply because I wanted to graduate early. Five years later,
when I decided to apply to ....

Susan Rich is the author
of four collections of poetry, most recently, Cloud Pharmacy and The Alchemist’s Kitchen, which was a Finalist for the Foreword
Prize and the Washington State Book Award. Her other books include Cures Include Travel (2006)
and The Cartographer’s Tongue /
Poems of the World (2000) which won the PEN USA Award for Poetry and
the Peace Corps Writers Book Award. She is the recipient of awards from
Artist’s Trust, 4Culture, The Times Literary Supplement of London, Seattle
Mayors Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the Fulbright Foundation. Susan's poems have been published in many journals including: Antioch Review, Gettysburg Review, Harvard Review, and The Southern Review.

Currently, she is Professor of Creative Writing and Film Studies at Highline College, outside of Seattle, WA.. Susan also works as the poetry editor for The Human journal based in
Istanbul, Turkey and along with Kelli Russell Agodon is founder of Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for
Women. She is one of the editors of the anthology, The Strangest of Theatres: Poets Writing Across Borders published
by McSweeney’s and the Poetry Foundation (2013). Susan lives in Seattle,
WA and writes in the House of Sky, a few blocks from the Puget Sound.